


Jet Black Hearts 3.15: Bela Talbot

by voleuse



Series: Jet Black Hearts [59]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:01:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27567922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: Bela's always been good at making deals, aside from that first one.
Series: Jet Black Hearts [59]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1979008
Kudos: 6





	Jet Black Hearts 3.15: Bela Talbot

**Author's Note:**

> Set after 3.15, "Time Is On My Side," with a nod to 5.09, "The Real Ghostbusters."

Bela saw the first hound weeks before her clock had run out. Evidence, she supposed, that knowledge sometimes only proved one powerless. The hellhound looked exactly as she'd expected. Was that also an artifact of her previous research, or did they morph to fit one's worst nightmares? 

It was only one at first, but over the days, they multiplied. Her every step was dogged (ha) by terror. By the time Lilith called her--demons on the telephone never ceased to strike her as absurd--Bela was on the wrong side of desperate. So, even though she liked Sam and, she supposed, Dean, ten minutes to midnight she found herself standing over two blow-up dolls holding a smoking gun.

She looked out the window of the room and the hounds were there, pacing. She watched the saliva of one drip off a fang, setting the grass beneath it sizzling.

Bela was contemplating the remainder of her bullets when a knock on the door startled her.

She was tempted to ignore it, but one's impending evisceration didn't necessitate incivility. She swung the door open just as the man was raising his hand to knock once more.

"Ah," he said. He slid his hands into the pockets of his trousers. "Miss Talbot. You're looking...panicked."

Bela tossed her gun onto one of the beds. "I take it you're not here to deliver pizza?" She folded her arms.

"If you're feeling peckish," he said, "I could make a call. But I imagine you've other things on your mind at the moment."

Claws scraped against the glass of the window. Bela flinched.

"Sorry about Nora," the man said. "Speaking of being peckish."

"So you are a demon," Bela responded. "Not who I expected."

"Who, Lilith?" The man circled around her, smirking. "Upper management at the moment." He shrugged a shoulder. "Nevertheless, all the contracts belong to the King of the Crossroads. Me."

Bela sighed. "Another clause, I suppose?"

"A new interpretation, perhaps." He held a hand out and the Colt was in it. "This is a fine piece and a fulfillment of your contract."

Bela glanced at the riddled plastic on the beds. "But the Winchesters?"

"Funnily enough, we didn't actually want them dead." He poked one of the deflated dolls with the barrel of the Colt. "Just wary. Seemed they were getting too cozy with you."

She couldn't help but laugh. "Hell has an odd definition of cozy."

"As may be. But I've got a role that you'd quite ably fill." The demon waved and the Colt disappeared again. "I'm usually a hands-on type, but dear Lilith has we demons on an ever tighter leash of late. I find myself in need of a broker."

"A...broker." Bela frowned. "Of souls?"

"Of souls, of favors, of all sorts of little trinkets." Another gesture and he held a thick ledger in his hand. "I hate to admit it, but the demons available to me lack a certain discipline."

Bela stared at the ledger. "I'd still be human?"

"For as long as it's convenient," he said. "For me, I mean."

"Not really a comforting pledge," Bela replied.

"No," he said, "but given your other option is Nora and the pups..." His eyes flickered.

Suddenly Bela was aware of the clicking of claws, hot breath against her shoulder. "Deal," she said through clenched teeth.

"Don't look so solemn, love," he said. "Welcome to the team."

Then he was gone, and Bela was left alone with a ledger, a gun, and the remnants of the life she could have had.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote a slightly different "Bela survives" story a while back: [What Gets Said](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24784).


End file.
